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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25157962">The Cottage by the Sea</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Charlie9646/pseuds/Charlie9646'>Charlie9646</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Drunken sex, Enemies to Lovers, F/M, Hair Pulling, Harry Potter Epilogue What Epilogue | EWE, Power Imbalance, Severus Snape Lives, Smut, Snape is still an arse, Snide Remarks, not really a love story</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-07-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 04:21:21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Explicit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>998</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25157962</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Charlie9646/pseuds/Charlie9646</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Hermione didn’t want to work for him anymore than he wanted her to work for him, but sometimes you have to deal with it.</p><p>When life gives you lemons...</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Severus Snape/Hermione Granger</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>67</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Career Day: A Dumbledore's Armada Flash Fic Competition</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>The Cottage by the Sea</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">



        <li>In response to a prompt by
            Anonymous in the <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/collections/Career_Day">Career_Day</a>
          collection.
        </li>
    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>
  <strong>Prompt:</strong>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> Thank you RavenPuffLove for Betaing this odd little piece, and helping me sort this out. </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Nanny/Babysitter</p><p>Thank you to my beta who for now shall remain namless.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Hermione Granger didn’t know why she was here. </p><p> </p><p>Why was she standing in front of this door—taking an odd job she'd come across in the Prophet?</p><p> </p><p>Hermione didn’t <em> like </em> children; she loved them. However, Hermione had always believed that she would be doing something else with her life besides minding children. Unfortunately, Hermione needed money for such things, and Galleons were something that she didn’t have much of.</p><p> </p><p>So, here she was, waiting on the mystery man who was 'seeking an intelligent woman with good scores on both her OWLS and NEWTs, and who has an understanding of the Muggle world' to be the primary caretaker of a six-year-old girl.’ </p><p> </p><p>Hermione started knocking on the bone-white door. A small child peaked out the curtains, their blue eyes were haunting. </p><p> </p><p>There was a thunder of steps, and the door was yanked open.  Hermione saw someone who she would never have expected. </p><p> </p><p>
  <em> Severus Snape.  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>Severus looked far younger than when he was her Professor, nicer even, though still unpleasant. </p><p> </p><p>“No,” Severus growled, trying to shut the door in her face. “Not you, I had to put up with more than enough to last a lifetime.”</p><p> </p><p>“Snape!” Hermione snapped; this was about her future nothing more. Catching the door before he could shut it. “You need an intelligent nanny, from a <em> Muggle </em>background. I am both. Can we set our differences aside for once?”</p><p> </p><p>“Possibly,” he bristled, narrowing his coal-black eyes. “You will be teaching my daughter, Ms. Granger, will that be an issue?”</p><p> </p><p>“No, that doesn’t matter to me,” she said. “A job is a job.”</p><p> </p><p>“Well, that settles it.” </p><p> </p><p>                     ************************</p><p> </p><p>Ivy, Severus’ daughter, was in many ways both the opposite of her father and his clone. The girl was snarky, self-loathing, and also the quietest child Hermione had ever met. However, there was a softness to her Snape lacked. The child was a squib in a world full of magic, and that was not unlike Severus in the Muggle world, <em>different</em>.</p><p> </p><p>Hermione was to be the bridge between worlds. But, when everything shook itself out? It didn’t feel like that.</p><p> </p><p>Hermione was allowing Severus to pretend that his hideaway was safe for his daughter, that he was helping her.  Hermione knew she should leave this wretched place.</p><p> </p><p>But, she found herself drawn to the man. Hermione couldn’t begin to explain it. It all came to a head one evening, in his office. One drink led to another until they'd numbed their minds and opened up to new possibilities. </p><p> </p><p>The man who was her boss, who had been her once <em> miserable </em>professor, whose daughter had a mother he would not speak of… Kissed her. </p><p> </p><p>His lips tasted like the fire whiskey they shared, his hair soft beneath her fingers, his long, potion-stained fingers undoing the buttons of her blouse. They fell comfortably into his chair, a pile of limbs and angles.</p><p> </p><p>They shouldn’t be doing this, Hermione’s mind screamed out. This man was no kinder than a viper in the garden. This was dancing with disaster. </p><p> </p><p> “Are you sure?” He whispered in her ear. </p><p> </p><p>One night wouldn’t hurt. They weren’t going to remember this and if they did? So be it. </p><p> </p><p>“Yes, I am,” she groaned, the words falling from her lips.</p><p> </p><p>Her fingers undid his shirt buttons. Severus growled, before Hermione anywhere near finished her task, silently spelling their clothes off. </p><p> </p><p>His fingers were like a hot iron on her skin, a live wire reaching out to touch places that ripped cries from her lips. </p><p> </p><p>Severus nipped at her skin, one hand knotting into her wild curls, tugging her head back harshly.</p><p> </p><p>Hermione reached out to take his cock in her hand, sinking down onto it, hissing at the fullness. Severus let go of her curls and leaned his forehead against hers, staring at her with his raven’s wing black eyes, as if he was trying to remember every single detail of her. </p><p> </p><p>“Move, you bloody witch, or do I have to do it for you?” Severus spat, even when they were fucking his harsh edges were still very much present.  </p><p> </p><p>Hermione reached for the man’s broad shoulders using them for leverage, as she rose and sank back down onto his member, using his body for her pleasure, just as he used hers. It could have been minutes, hours or even days that passed pushing and pulling, kissing and grabbing, shocks of pleasure, and feeling the twisting in her core.</p><p> </p><p>Severus came with a cry muffled into her shoulder. Hermione was dragged along with him not long after. Stars flashed behind her eyes as it felt like she was being ripped apart and stitched back together in the same instant. Severus kissed Hermione one more time, and with a silent spell, cleaned them up. He shoved her off of him, handing Hermione her clothes, without saying a single word. </p><p> </p><p>Nothing had changed it seemed - not one bloody thing. Snape didn’t want to love her any more than Hermione wanted to love him. This was just sex, a means to an end. </p><p> </p><p>So why did it hurt so bloody much? </p><p> </p><p>The next morning Hermione found Severus sitting in his office, his reading glass perched on the edge of his overly large nose. There were silver hairs sprouting from his hairline, though they oddly suited him.</p><p> </p><p>“Here,” he said, handing her an envelope.</p><p> </p><p>“We aren’t going to talk about last night, are we?” Hermione asked. </p><p> </p><p>“No,” Severus snapped. “I have work to do, and so do you. You are the same insufferable know-it-all you <em> always </em>were. Not a damn thing has changed.”</p><p> </p><p>“You're just the same bloody git you always were!” Hermione snarled, wanting to throw something at him. “You can go to hell.”</p><p> </p><p>“You first, Granger,” he spat.  </p><p> </p><p>Hermione would leave this place once she had the money she needed; she would leave. Hermione promised herself. That lasted only until they ended up in bed together once more. They were moths to flames bringing each other to heaven and hell. </p><p> </p><p>  </p><p> </p><p>  </p><p><br/>
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